Business, International

Most of world’s companies were not prepared for Internet outage

Eati Akter

Sub- Editor

Many organizations around the world, from airlines to healthcare, shipping to commercial organizations, faced a dire situation last Friday (July 19). The situation was caused by a flaw in a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. A flaw in one of CrowdStrike’s automatic updates crippled millions of computers around the world. As a result, many sectors including transportation, trade, health care, and media are affected. Due to the faulty update of Crowdstrike’s software, the normal operations of the Windows operating system-dependent organizations were suddenly disrupted. Airlines of different countries were forced to cancel flights. Apart from this, the activities of healthcare and banking services are also disrupted. Errors occur in the computer systems of various companies based on the Windows operating system around the world for several hours.

Many companies have suffered financial losses. However, the incident also highlighted the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technology-based companies. In such a situation, most of the companies were in trouble and had no alternative. Due to this problem, various companies flights around the world have been canceled, medical services have been disrupted and even the operations of banks and financial institutions have come to a standstill. Although the crowdstrike has since been able to return to normal, delayed and canceled flights, medical appointments, business activities and other issues may take days to resolve. However, if such a problem reoccurs in the future, how can it be quickly overcome or what can be done as an alternative, the question has arisen whether the business organizations are thinking about it or not.

Crowdstrike is an approximately $83 billion company. This company has more than 20 thousand customers worldwide like Amazon.com, Microsoft. However, Crowdstrike has apologized to customers for the damage caused by the sudden software update error. In a statement, CrowdStrike apologized deeply to all those affected, including their customers, travelers and their companies. George Kurtz, chief executive of the US software company Crowdstrike, said that after the problem is known, efforts to find the cause begin. The issue has also been resolved. Customers have also been sent advisory messages accordingly. The company said that many customers are now able to work as before. Microsoft says less than two percent of computers running Windows software are affected. Now the question is why this disaster spread so much? Mark Gregory, an associate professor at RMIT University’s School of Engineering, said that 1.8 percent of these computers are enterprise customer computers. That is why it has so much influence on public life. He said that this kind of situation has arisen as a result of negligence in the security system.

CrowdStrike tools are commonly used by large organizations to prevent malware and cyber attacks. But due to an error in their automatic update, such a big disaster occurred worldwide. Experts say that the computer screen turns blue, which is called ‘Blue Screen of Death’, it is a ‘Recovery Boot Loop’. Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, a major provider of cloud computing, has also been affected. Director of the Center for Software and Security Practice at the University of Western Sydney. David Glance told SBS News that users rely on companies like CrowdStrike to protect their devices without any checks. Organizations are often completely dependent on a single supplier when it comes to software. So if any problem occurs there is no alternative. He said, the wider the use of a software company’s service, the more widespread its consequences will be if there is an error in it. Tom Worthington, an honorary lecturer at the Australian National University’s School of Computing, said he was baffled as to why CrowdStrike didn’t identify the problem before issuing a security update. He said, this problem should be cautioned against relying entirely on any particular software. We must have alternative arrangements.

Large organizations use CrowdStrike for several reasons. It is timely, quite effective and a large number of employees know how to use it. But in the case of last Friday’s software outage, it is clear that a small problem can quickly spread around the world in minutes. Tom Worthington also believes that relying on a single supplier is unwise. No matter how reputable the supplier is. He further said that organizations should always ensure alternative arrangements keeping disaster in mind. According to him, being prepared is key. One thing that has become a cause for concern in such situations is that many organizations were not prepared for such problems. But such incidents can happen again. Experts say that until network systems and other organizations introduce more alternatives, such problems are not uncommon in major disasters.

Ann Johnson, head of Microsoft’s security and compliance business, said the internet outages caused massive damage. He said, hundreds of our engineers are currently working to normalize the entire situation. White House officials have confirmed that US President Joe Biden has also made a statement in this regard. Meanwhile, Gil Luria, DA Davidson’s top software analyst, said the event reminded us how complex, how interconnected our global computing systems are, and how vulnerable they are at the same time. Hundreds of thousands of flights were canceled by various airlines around the world on Friday. According to CrowdStrike, the problem occurs after a faulty update is installed on computers running Microsoft Windows. They noted that there were no security complications or cyber attacks behind the outage.

An association of doctors in Austria says that this information technology mess has revealed the fragility of health management that depends on digital systems. The German government’s IT security agency says numerous companies are still struggling to cope with the consequences of technological outages. They warned that cybercriminals are trying to take advantage of this situation through phishing, fake websites and other scams and spread unauthorized software code. Meanwhile, Heathrow International Airport, Europe’s busiest, said it had operated as normal since Saturday. All systems are back-up and working, the airport authority said in a statement. Passengers are traveling smoothly.

Hundreds of UK flights were canceled on Friday. The Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital in northern Germany has canceled non-urgent surgeries due to a technical outage. They said on Saturday that their management is gradually recovering. Almost a week has passed since the global outage started. But still the activities are not normal in all institutions. To avoid such issues in the future, CrowdStrike has made sure to test Rapid Response content more thoroughly from now on. Besides, the company has also said to be more careful before giving permission to any update. But according to technology analysts, they should have taken such precautions from the beginning.

CrowdStrike said their faulty software updates rendered Microsoft’s Windows operating system-based devices unusable. One of two recent updates to CrowdStrike was the content validator, which was cleared for use despite having faulty data or ‘bugs’. However, the company has assured that such mistakes will not happen in the future.

Most of world’s companies were not prepared for Internet outage

Eati Akter

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Most of world’s companies were not prepared for Internet outage

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